Hi there all of you! I study my own dreams from some time and I have recently came up to the conclusion that much of the content of common dreams is based or derives from implicit/procedural/non-declarative memory. I have searched the internet and it seems it is partially true. So, I want to propose you an experiment. But first let me explain the general idea.

You all now what a reality testing tehnique is. If you were to put it simply, it is some kind of action or activity you do during the day, hoping it will get internalized and will get rehearsed in dream, which will led you to recognise the pattern and become lucid.
But how does it get internalized? For sure it enters our memory, but what type of memory? I would say it gets in the implicit memory. And for this reason, it might be that the lucid dream you think you have is a mere common dream about geting lucid using a reality testing tehnique. I had a lot of dreams in which I was only dreaming about using a reality testing method to get lucid. They seemed pretty lucid at the time, but later on I have realized they were in fact just common dreams (the whole set of lucid dream particularities was kind of incomplete). So, if common dreams are based on implict memory material, I thought that this use of "lucidity methods" might generate only a dream about lucidity instead of a real lucid dream. We easily get confused and when having such a strong urge to get lucid, we may not realize that what we experience is not a lucid dream at all.

For example, the actions involved by the tehnique (let's say checking the time on your wrist watch) might get in the implicit memory. Once they are there, the probability of dream occurence having them included gets higher. So, sooner or later that material generates a part of a dream, where we (the dreamers) perform the action that stands for the tehnique. So, we dream about checking the time on our watch.

Now it's the tricky part. From this point on we might get lucid or we might just dream about getting lucid. What makes the difference? Well, I think that if you make a good plan in the waking state about what to do once you are lucid, the entire script (checking the time, getting lucid, do whatever you want once being lucid) will go in the implicit memory and will form a good common dream about lucidity. Why? Because all the material needed it's retrived from the implicit memory. Because you spend (so much) time every day rehearsing the method and planning your way to lucidity, all the things gets into your head in the form of a script about lucidity, and that script will become a dream later on.

But if you don't have a well established plan of what to do once lucidity "strikes" you, it is possible that you won't get an implicit script in your head that would automatically turn into a dream. You will have a common dream till the point you get lucid. It is possible this would generate a lucid dream, because you will dream about recognising you're in a dream, thing that might trigger real lucidity. I hope I managed to get myself understood. If not, I will try to re-explain another time.

Now the idea of the experiment gets obvious, I think.

- The independent variable is the reality tehnique and all the other things (that we consider to be the same, using a certain "amount" of subjects; statistics say so)

- The dependent variable will consist of the dreamer building/ or not building a well established plan of things to do after becoming lucid

So, we must choose one standard, simple and easy to use reality testing tehnique (to which all the subjects are accustomed and that gave results earlier in thir lucid dreaming experience).
Then we need two groups:

The control group will perform only the tehnique, without having any kind of plan or stable intentions about what to do once they become lucid

The experimental group will perform the tehnique but will have a very good build plan about the things to do when lucid (but not very hard things, like flying or going through walls, because not all dreamers have the same experience)

Once they have a dream about the tehnique or the plan or bouth, they will write down the dream in every possible detail, so that later on we can establish if it was a real lucid dream or not.

This is the overall procedure. Those interested will add up and discuss further details for the beginning of the experiment. Hope it is of some interest. If you think some thing is out of place or would work in another way, feel free to comment.
All the good things!